Event management method and system

ABSTRACT

An event management method, program product and system for monitoring the status of a purchase order involves receiving purchase order information from a user, obtaining timeline information corresponding to the purchase order, receiving information from one or more sources on the status of the purchase order, using the received information to monitor progress of the purchase order against the timeline information, and providing a notification to the user upon identification of a missed date in the timeline information. Remedial measures are suggested or taken by the event management system.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/551,221, filed Mar. 8, 2004 and entitled “Inventory Management,” andU.S. Provisional Application No. 60/563,284, filed Apr. 16, 2004 andentitled “Inventory Management,” both of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to the purchasing and delivery ofproducts and specifically to the monitoring of purchase order status andthe performance of follow-up tasks to effect timely delivery.

B. Background

In a retail environment, it is important to have effective timing in thepurchasing and delivery of products. For example, if a goal is to havegoods be on store shelves for sale on a specific date, those goodsshould be delivered in such a timeframe to effect that goal. If thegoods arrive to the store too early, it creates inventory problems andcosts. If the goods arrive too late, the sales window is eroded,resulting in lost sales. Therefore, it is important for the buyer orperson making purchase orders to have adequate guidance on the timingfor placing such purchase orders in order to meet the retailer's goals.

It is also important for the buyer to be able to track the progress ofthe purchase order. If there are delays with the fulfillment of thepurchase order, either at the vendor or at some intermediate deliverycompany, it is important for the buyer to know of such delays promptly.This allows for remedial measures to be taken so that the retailer'sgoal of having the goods on sale on a specific date may still be met.Current systems and methods do not adequately facilitate successfulremedial measures to be taken. Furthermore, current systems provideinsufficient guidance on the timing of purchase orders or on themonitoring of the progress of purchase order fulfillment. They do notfacilitate the control of follow up and remedial activities from thepurchase ordering system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention discloses an event managementmethod, program product and system for monitoring the status of apurchase order. This embodiment involves receiving purchase orderinformation from a user, obtaining timeline information corresponding tothe purchase order, receiving information from one or more sources onthe status of the purchase order, using the received information tomonitor progress of the purchase order against the timeline information,and providing a notification to the user upon identification of a misseddate in the timeline information. In an additional embodiment of theinvention, the event management method further includes the initiationof follow-up and remedial activities to facilitate timely delivery andfulfillment of the purchase order. In an additional embodiment of theinvention, the event management system is fully integrated with thepurchase ordering system. Key dates in a purchase order timeline, suchas the purchase order date, are transferred freely between the eventmanagement system and the purchase order system

Other features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription. It should be understood, however, that the detaileddescription and specific examples, while indicating preferredembodiments of the present invention, are given by way of illustrationand not limitation. Many changes and modifications within the scope ofthe present invention may be made without departing from the spiritthereof, and the invention includes all such modifications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing advantages and features of the invention will becomeapparent upon reference to the following detailed description and theaccompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of anevent management system for monitoring the status of a purchase order.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates the method and system of event management inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Asshown in this figure, the event management system 20 is independent fromthe retail system 10. This however reflects one specific embodiment andthe scope of the present invention is not limited by such separation.

A user of the retail system 10 is able to create and place purchaseorders using preferably an order entry workbench. This workbench allowsa user to create and submit purchase orders for goods. As shown inelement 100, the user selects products from an active view on a displayscreen of the order entry workbench. Element 105 refers to a procurementscreen displayed on said workbench for processing of purchase orders.Element 110 refers to the actual processing of purchase orders asperformed by the retail system. Element 115 refers to the end ofmonitoring of a purchase order. This end can be reached when thepurchase order has been fulfilled or cancelled.

For a given product, the user is given a timeline that containsinformation regarding that product pertaining to its delivery andtiming. This timeline can be pre-existing using historical data andcontains information such as the events that must take place between theplacement of the purchase order and the goods being placed on theshelves in the retail store. For example, the user can input the targetdate for having the goods on the shelves. The retail system, using thetimeline for the product will calculate the latest date on which apurchase order can be placed for such goods. The timeline containsinformation on other events in the purchase order fulfillment processsuch as: the production end date, the departure date of the goods fromthe vendor, the arrival date of the goods at a destination port, thegoods received date at the distribution center of the retailer, thedeparture date of the goods from the distribution center, the receiveddate of the goods at the retailer store, and finally, the presentationdate of the goods at the store.

If, for a given product being ordered, there is no pre-existing timelineusing historical data, a new timeline is generated using default values.The user is also able to edit the timeline associated with the productbeing ordered and the events contained therein. The timelines are storedin a database or are transmitted as part of the purchase order.

Once the purchase order is placed, the event monitoring system 20retrieves the timeline either from a database or from the purchase orderand uses it and the purchase order information to monitor, in element140, compliance with the event dates set forth in the timeline. Thismonitoring is important in determining whether key dates are being metor are being missed indicating a delay.

The information needed for such monitoring can come directly from thethird party vendor or delivery company through human queries or throughcomputer based methods. In the preferred embodiment of the invention,the event management system 20 interfaces with the appropriate computersystems of the various third parties including the vendor, the deliverycompanies, and/or internal computer systems of the retailer, in order toobtain real-time or near real-time status information on the status ofthe purchase order and the location of the products. This is facilitatedby the event monitoring system's use of standard interfaces.

For each specific vendor, or for a plurality of vendors, a customer isable to define an activity profile. This activity profile contains rulesregarding the procedures to be used with that vendor or vendors. Forexample, a buyer dealing with a large or important vendor to theretailer should not be able to cancel a purchase order without firstgiving the vendor a specific amount of time to remedy a delay. Thiscould be one of the rules embodied in the activity profile for thatvendor. Also, depending on the country of the vendor, local laws mayrequire that certain procedures be followed, procedures that are notrequired in countries of other vendors. Such differences can beaddressed through the activity profiles.

The event management system 20, has access to such activity profilescorresponding to vendors of specific products and purchase orders. Inelement 145, the event management system determines, based on theactivity profile for the relevant vendor and/or other rules asdetermined by the user, what action to take if it is determined that adate in the timeline corresponding to the purchase order has beenmissed. If such a problem arises, an attempt is made to place anindicator of the problem in the user's work list in the order entryworkbench. As shown in element 125, if the problem is new in that it hasnot been added before, it is added to the user's work list as shown inelement 120.

The event management system offers a suggestion to the user of aremedial measure for addressing the problem identified. For example, itmay suggest to cancel the purchase order. The user can then manuallydecide whether or not to cancel the purchase order. Only those remedialmeasures that are allowed for the situation and the specific vendorbased on the activity profile are offered to the user. For example, evenif a shipment is delayed, the user may be prevented from canceling apurchase order from an important vendor. In such an example, the usermay decide to give the vendor an extra week for delivery of the goods.The user would update the purchase order in element 105 and the systemwould proceed by monitoring compliance with the new date.

Certain actions or remedial measures can be performed automaticallywithout manual input by a user. Based on the activity profile for avendor, the event management system may, for example, in element 130send an initial reminder to the vendor upon determining that a date hasbeen missed.

The event management system also handles errors as shown in element 150.For example, if a user cancels a purchase order for which the retailerhas already paid the vendor, the cancellation will not be processed andthe problem will be indicated on the user's work list 120.

The information and analysis provided by the event management system canbe used not only to remedy delays but also to trigger advancenotification for advertising and capacity management. For example, inthe purchase order process, when the products reach a specific point, itmay trigger deployment of an advertising campaign for said products.

The event management system of an embodiment of the invention is fullyintegrated with the purchase ordering system. Key dates in a purchaseorder timeline, such as the purchase order date, are transferred freelybetween the event management system and the purchase order system.

As noted above, embodiments within the scope of the present inventioninclude program products comprising computer-readable media for carryingor having computer-executable instructions or data structures storedthereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available media thatcan be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By wayof example, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EPROM,EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used tocarry or store desired program code in the form of computer-executableinstructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a generalpurpose or special purpose computer. When information is transferred orprovided over a network or another communications connection (eitherhardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired or wireless) to acomputer, the computer properly views the connection as acomputer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed acomputer-readable medium. Combinations of the above are also to beincluded within the scope of computer-readable media.Computer-executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions.

The invention is described in the general context of method steps, whichmay be implemented in one embodiment by a program product includingcomputer-executable instructions, such as program code, executed bycomputers in networked environments. Generally, program modules includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, andprogram modules represent examples of program code for executing stepsof the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of suchexecutable instructions or associated data structures representsexamples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions describedin such steps.

The present invention in some embodiments, may be operated in anetworked environment using logical connections to one or more remotecomputers having processors. Logical connections may include a localarea network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) that are presented hereby way of example and not limitation. Such networking environments arecommonplace in office-wide or enterprise-wide computer networks,intranets and the Internet. Those skilled in the art will appreciatethat such network computing environments will typically encompass manytypes of computer system configurations, including personal computers,hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by localand remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwiredlinks, wireless links, or by a combination of hardwired or wirelesslinks) through a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotememory storage devices.

An exemplary system for implementing the overall system or portions ofthe present invention might include a general purpose computing devicein the form of a conventional computer, including a processing unit, asystem memory, and a system bus that couples various system componentsincluding the system memory to the processing unit. The system memorymay include read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). Thecomputer may also include a magnetic hard disk drive for reading fromand writing to a magnetic hard disk, a magnetic disk drive for readingfrom or writing to a removable magnetic disk, and an optical disk drivefor reading from or writing to removable optical disk such as a CD-ROMor other optical media. The drives and their associatedcomputer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage ofcomputer-executable instructions, data structures, program modules andother data for the computer.

Software and web implementations of the present invention could beaccomplished with standard programming techniques with rule based logicand other logic to accomplish the various database searching steps,correlation steps, comparison steps and decision steps. It should alsobe noted that the word “component” as used herein and in the claims isintended to encompass implementations using one or more lines ofsoftware code, and/or hardware implementations, and/or equipment forreceiving manual inputs.

The foregoing description of embodiments of the present invention hasbeen presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to theprecise form disclosed, and modifications and variations are possible inlight of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of thepresent invention. The embodiments were chosen and described in order toexplain the principals of the present invention and its practicalapplication to enable one skilled in the art to utilize the presentinvention in various embodiments and with various modifications as aresuited to the particular use contemplated.

1. An event management method for monitoring the status of a purchaseorder, said method, comprising: receiving purchase order informationfrom a user; obtaining timeline information corresponding to saidpurchase order; receiving information from one or more sources on thestatus of said purchase order; using said received information tomonitor progress of said purchase order against said timelineinformation; and providing a notification to said user uponidentification of a missed date in said timeline information.
 2. Anevent management method according to claim 1, wherein said step ofreceiving information further comprises connecting with computers atsaid one or more sources using a standard communication protocol andinterface.
 3. An event management method according to claim 1, whereinsaid notification further comprises one or more suggested remedialmeasures to be taken by the user.
 4. An event management methodaccording to claim 1, further comprising the step of automaticallytaking one or more remedial measures upon identification
 5. An eventmanagement method according to claim 3, further comprising using anactivity profile of a vendor responsible for said missed date todetermine said one or more suggested remedial measures.
 6. An eventmanagement method according to claim 4, further comprising using anactivity profile of a vendor responsible for said missed date todetermine said one or more suggested remedial measures.
 7. An eventmanagement method according to claim 1, wherein said step of obtainingtimeline information further comprises extracting said timelineinformation from said purchase order information received from saiduser.
 8. An event management method according to claim 1, wherein saidstep of obtaining timeline information further comprises accessing adatabase and retrieving said timeline information.
 9. A program productfor monitoring the status of a purchase order, said program productcomprising machine-readable program code for causing, when executed, oneor more machines to perform the following method steps: receivingpurchase order information from a user; obtaining timeline informationcorresponding to said purchase order; receiving information from one ormore sources on the status of said purchase order; using said receivedinformation to monitor progress of said purchase order against saidtimeline information; and providing a notification to said user uponidentification of a missed date in said timeline information.
 10. Aprogram product according to claim 9, wherein said step of receivinginformation further comprises connecting with computers at said one ormore sources using a standard communication protocol and interface. 11.A program product according to claim 9, wherein said notificationfurther comprises one or more suggested remedial measures to be taken bythe user.
 12. A program product according to claim 9, further programmedto perform the step of automatically taking one or more remedialmeasures upon identification of a missed date.
 13. A program productaccording to claim 11, further programmed to perform the step of usingan activity profile of a vendor responsible for said missed date todetermine said one or more suggested remedial measures.
 14. A programproduct according to claim 12, further programmed to perform the step ofusing an activity profile of a vendor responsible for said missed dateto determine said one or more suggested remedial measures.
 15. A programproduct according to claim 9, wherein said step of obtaining timelineinformation further comprises extracting said timeline information fromsaid purchase order information received from said user.
 16. A programproduct according to claim 9, wherein said step of obtaining timelineinformation further comprises accessing a database and retrieving saidtimeline information.
 17. An event management system for monitoring thestatus of a purchase order, said system comprising: a server computerconfigured to perform the steps of: receiving purchase order informationfrom a user computer; obtaining timeline information corresponding tosaid purchase order; receiving information from one or more sources onthe status of said purchase order; using said received information tomonitor progress of said purchase order against said timelineinformation; and providing a notification to said user computer uponidentification of a missed date in said timeline information.
 18. Anevent management system for monitoring the status of a purchase order,said system comprising: means for receiving purchase order informationfrom a user computer; means for obtaining timeline informationcorresponding to said purchase order; means for receiving informationfrom one or more sources on the status of said purchase order; means forusing said received information to monitor progress of said purchaseorder against said timeline information; and means for providing anotification to said user computer upon identification of a missed datein said timeline information.